Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Invaluable Warhammer tools; Battlescribe Roster builder

One of the most useful tools that I would recommend to
fellow players of Wargames is Battlescribe. This is a mobile and PC based list
builder that I really would struggle to live without, and heartily recommend to
all (not an Ad you’ll be surprised to learn! Just really like it).

So Battlescribe is a third party app that has been around
for a couple of years, and is incredibly useful to keep your lists and rules in
a nearby format.

Essentially, it uses data catalogues uploaded by the gaming
community to allow regular joes to build viable gaming lists.

It presents itself in a simple (low CPU demanding) app.

You select a game system, (in this case 40k) select your
force organisation, and then select your army.

From there you are shown a simple page which prompts you to
start adding your forces. The best bit about this app is that it keeps you
within the guidelines of the force you are using.

If we take a 40k army for example to begin with it will tell
you (through red alert notices that flag what you’re missing) that when
creating a Combined army Detachment you need to add a unit to include at least
1 HQ, and at least 2 troop choices. way. You select the unit from the relevant
section (from Non-Force org HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack, Heavy support,
Lords of war) and then hit add.

At this point, everything is presented as their minimum
codex entry and size and loadout with nothing further added, the core unit and
nothing more, this includes its points as a ‘naked unit’.

If this was an Allied group that would be 1 HQ, and 1 Troop
choice. Likewise it alerts you when you go over your requirements, so if you
add one too many Heavy Support choices, or troops.

For the other diverse detachments that are available like an
Officio Assassination force or Flesh Tearers detachment, its requirements are
presented as they are in the codex/data slate, if you don’t include the
mandatory units, your list is marked as invalid.

That is the basic level of Force organisation. As you look
deeper to the army level it alerts you further, and keeps you within the rules
still. So if you have a codex unit which is unique, or your force organisation
only allows 0-1 in the detachment, it will alert you.

When you get deeper down at the squad level, it will warn
you if your squads are over their maximum number. For example you should only
have 10 guardsmen, but you have selected 9, and a two man heavy weapons team.

Deeper down to the individual, like the Sergeant, did you
know you gave him two chainswords? No? Alert! If you must pick between loadouts its marked down as a necessary
requirement, if you have to pick a specific rule they have, then its listed
too. Every upgrade is represented and
selection defined.

You can then view the list as a whole, with stats, basic
rules (I.e. rending, rage) and if the catalogue creator has the time, explanations
of the specific rules that apply to the specific units, if not, then most
likely a page link. Your choices will be shown in a nice listed format that
shows stats across the board and can be put into html, notepad, email and
because they are exportable you can send this to your tournament organiser as
read-only, send it to your friends, send it between compatible devices and save
it in many places.

This all means that you can create lists you actually want
to use, and not only that, you can create multiple variants themed in slightly
different ways. I.e. I have a Cults list. I have a Cults list themed towards
heavy Armour, towards hordes.

There is a premium version which not only removes ads, but
also enables custom naming conventions, custom lists, custom squad builds that
can be saved and included in the armies standard roster and (probably) more.

The key and the champion of this is that the catalogues are
created and uploaded by the community. This means that when new codex’s come
out the list detail very quickly become available to play around with.

With this app you are able to cope with game changes on the
fly, such as a scheduled gamer forgetting part of their list, or wanting to
scale a game upwards. Additionally, it’s a really handy referral mechanism that
means if you forget your codex, you have a backup.

Now I’m a low-cost, low-load gamer, which means I want to
turn up to a game with dice, templates, an army and an app that covers everything.
I don’t want to bring a stack of books, nor do I want to have printed sheets of
rules. I have a few codexes in PDF format, but as I also use the enhanced and ereader
formats in the main so I can bring very little along.

One thing to note is that this app is in no way endorsed by
Games Workshop, despite the incredible flexibility it adds to their system, so
be mindful of using this around Warhammer World or shoving this in their faces.
They are getting there with the builders available in their Enhanced codexes, but
they have yet to make a sensible alternative to this community created option
so watch this space for theirs.

The app is available on Android, IOS, as well as desktop
versions for Mac and PC’s and I really recommend it, I couldn’t play Warhammer as
comprehensively as I do without it

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I'm a yet-young guy with a self confessed love of all (all) things interesting. As a believer in 'try everything', I'm trying my hand at some writing and some painting and some blogging for my favourite IP; Warhammer.
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